ICELAND

CAPITAL:
REYKJAVÍK
LANGUAGE: Icelandic
PEOPLE: Icelandic

Iceland,
land of fire and ice, is one of the most unusual tourist destinations
in the world. It is Europe's most western country and lies in
a strategic location in the North Atlantic, just south of the
Arctic Circle. Previously a Danish possession, Iceland became
fully independent in 1944. Most settlements are along the coast
to ensure that ports remain ice-free in the winter.
Ice you can understand. But why fire? This is because the country
lies on the rift where the North American and European continental
plates are pulling apart. This gives rise to some 200 volcanoes
plus numerous geysers and solfataras. Doesn't that sound an
interesting place to live?

Iceland is a really cool place to go! Bear in mind, though, you might
not see any ice - unless you go in the winter. So let's clear
up a few things first. If you want ice, best go to Greenland, and
if you want some green, best go to Iceland. Strange how people get
such important things wrong, isn't it? (Still, these early settlers
weren't well travelled, like the rest of us.) Although, to qualify
the 'green' in Iceland, let it be said that 'green' is few and far
between! (Yet it is always there, in spirit.) Apart from
where it is cultivated and well tended, grass is something
that can only survive on the volcanic dust until the elements tear
if off! This is very clear in some parts of an otherwise lunar landscape,
where odd patches of grass cling on for dear life and you can see
where neighbouring grass has just been uprooted and is 'gone with
the wind'. Often you can see the white of a glacier on the horizon.

Let's
clear up a few things first. If you want ice, best go to Greenland,
and if you want some green, best go to Iceland.

They say that the first rule of survival in Iceland is this: If you
get lost in a forest, stand up! Or dream, perhaps! Iceland
is, in the main, very flat, so you can generally see where you are
heading: across the lunar landscape. Finding trees is quite difficult,
although they're keen on putting them around cemeteries. Therefore,
if you get lost in a forest in Iceland, you are probably in a cemetery!
You'll be with others who are dead lucky! Originally, and I suspect
Icelanders might keep quiet about this, woodland once covered large
areas of the island, but the early settlers took care of this. (Pity
they didn't build with rock!) Now, reforestation is much talked about,
but it will take some time ... and lots of effort!

Having
mentioned that there are many places on Iceland where you might suppose
you were on the rocky landscape of the moon, it would be wrong to
imagine that it was just like Lanzarote! While it is also formed from
solidified volcanic eruptions, Iceland is at the other end of the
temperature scale, and is a might higher on the globe! While being
far from the most northerly outpost within Europe (Norway and Sweden
beat it there by miles), it is the most westerly. (Row due south from
western Iceland and there is a clear course to Antarctica!) It does,
however, nestle up to the Arctic Circle. That's why it is a cool place
to visit or to live! Not surprisingly, therefore, Nature has something
different in store for it than endless sun, although it is warmer
than many imagine. The average temperature in Reykjavik is -0.5°C
in January and 10.6°C in July: heady stuff!

Iceland is different from other countries in many other ways. Here's
an unusual way to be different, for example. Most countries have to
revert to plain and simple hostilities in order to extend their borders.
Not so Iceland. Being located on the mid-Atlantic Ridge,
the boundary of two or the earth's tectonic plates, the country is
getting larger all the time as these plates grind and pull apart:
by a few centimetres every year! This could just be why Iceland experiences
around 400 earth tremors a day! Where the plates separate, the earth's
crust is replenished by magma flowing up from the depths to fill the
gap. (Not that you're likely to even notice anything on a short visit.)
On the night of 23 January 1973, however, no one had a good night's
sleep in town, and 5,500 inhabitants had to be rapidly evacuated to
let the Heimaey eruption let off steam (smoke and fire, to
be more precise). I mentioned the erosion of the wind earlier, but
there are other factors of nature that continually mould this place:
rain, frost, ice and the ocean. Its glaciers hollowed out the fjords
and carved out the mountains in the north, east and west - OK, so
it's not all flat - and they also covered the volcanic zones,
giving rise to formations not found anywhere else on earth. Ice acted
as an inhibiting force on the lava flows and limited the spread of
ash, creating bizarre mountain formations as suddenly cooled magma
formed rocks with names like palagonite tuff and pillow
lava. Pick up some of the rock and you'll be amazed at how light
it is.

Icelanders have a fragile, every-changing land beneath their feet,
and their main source of income is fish from the surrounding
rich fields (boy, is our language open to ambiguity at times).
Their economy is equally fragile, due to their deep dependence upon
fishing. The country's capital, Reykjavik, is really just an overgrown
fishing town. (In fact, there are several neighbouring townships,
but they prefer to keep them separate: otherwise almost the entire
population would live in Reykjavik!)

Although
Icelanders live in the shadow of Nature, rather than fight the elements,
they respect and live in harmony with them. The countless geothermal
springs are harnessed to provide power and hot water for heating.
Within Reykjavik, for example, you will see many mysterious cabins.
These are capped well-heads, and the hot waters gushing forth f rom
them are mixed to create the desired temperatures and pressures and
are then fed off to heat domestic buildings! (To you and me, that
adds up to free energy, folks!) Others, like those by the famous Blue
Lagoon, are also used by power stations. At the Blue Lagoon,
it is the power station's waste water that is used to provide the
ethereal bathing pool that steams amidst either the lunar landscape
or the snow and ice, depending upon season. (You don't swim in the
sea here!) In the picture you can see the power station in the background,
and any blobs you see in the blue water are people's heads! (I got
all steamed-up trying to pick a good picture of the lagoon from the
few I took. Sorry, folks, this is the best I can do. The colouring
seemed to defy a good picture.) So while you might shiver getting
from the building into this outdoor pool, the temperature within the
pool is HOT. It is hotter than many people would have in their tubs
at home! This steaming pool was a surreal experience that I think
I will never forget.

Just
outside Reykjavik there is a place known as Perlan (The Pearl),
comprising a series of large hot water storage cylinders, upon which
has been build a rotating restaurant and viewing balcony, offering
good views over the capital and the surrounding countryside. (Yes,
that is a ring of trees on the edge of the city.) Nearby
is a small geothermal pool that, even on a relative warm day, steams
away merrily to itself, as you can see in this picture.

Way
out in the wilds - less than one hour's drive from the capital - you
can travel a rough 'summer-road' (like many of Iceland's roads, it
is closed in the winter) to see some of the lunar-like landscape,
chemically-laced lakes, bubbling murky mud-pools, and inspect the
left-over rocks from quarrying. Glaciers, with their immense weight,
crush and grind rocks, and glacial tongues and rivers convey the resulting
mixture to lay natural mosaic surfaces. You need time to go out on
special trips from the capital to really see Nature, however, and
guides that know where to take you and what to show you. Just look
at this natural mosaic!

Despite
being 'on the edge of civilisation', or perhaps because of
this and its general (and wise) detachment from world politics - don't
mention the 'cod wars' - the little clapboard cottage at Hofdi
is an image known throughout the world as the place where the famous
US and Soviet peace summit took place. Outside you can find some presentable
grass!

Icelanders are among the healthiest people in the world, incidentally.
Could it be all that clean air? Could it be all that fish in their
diet and the Omega-3 oils? Or could it be that compulsory health insurance
allows many medical services to be offered at minimal cost, with free
hospital care? Education is also free, by the way, and there is a
university at Reykjavik.

Reykjavik

And
so to Reykjavik. You probably won't get to see anything about this
place by other means on the Internet: for who can spell 'reykjavik'
to the satisfaction of a search engine? (I know I have to check it
every time I write it!) Translated, the name means "Smoky Bay",
due to the hot springs that once made it look rather different. It
looks rather more placid today than it was when the first Icelandic
settler set up home here, as this picture of the bay shows, with a
typical fishing boat at anchor with a volcanic rocky backdrop. As
hinted by the note on compulsory health insurance above, the Icelanders
are quite keen on welfare, they enjoy a relative high standard of
living, and their city buildings are all of a high standard. Although
many of the older building still use corrugated-iron roofs, sometimes
walls also, this is generally not the rusting variety but well-maintained,
colourful and functional. Icelander are also very keen on elf-fare:
they cling to myths here to the degree that roads have been diverted
rather than disturb the dwelling places of elves! (If you think I'm
kidding, see the Iceland site in the 'Guides' section.)

Reykjavik
is a good place to get stung, by the way! Watch out for prices
in the stores and eating places ... and watch out for wasps! I was
stung taking the left-hand picture next to the flamboyantly modern
City Hall - so forgive the camera-shake! (To be fair, I had just finished
a sticky-bun, but why this wasp boldly attacked me rather than my
bun I shall never know. I was minding my own business taking the picture,
after all.) This lake freezes over in winter - except for an area
in this corner, where warm spring water ensures there is always liquid
water for the resident swans, ducks and geese. If you go here, do
go inside the City Hall and descend to the lower level at the rear
to see the huge relief model of Iceland. (Pity it does not put any
named features on it, though.) Some rooms within this building are
actually under water! The non-watery picture shows one of the more
modern streets in the capital, and gives you an idea of the architecture.
This place is not large, by the way, and you can easily stroll around
the centre on foot.

Architecture
tends to be bold, and although concrete is a favourite building material,
the results are far more impressive than you might think. Take the
imposing Hallgrimskirkja Church, for example. (It's a funny
thing, but whenever I wanted to take a photo I was always
facing the sun! Fortunately the church tower was tall enough to shield
it in this case!)

Finally, take a look at the right-hand picture, taken inside the
church, facing backward towards the impressive organ. I thought you
might be interested in this since it appears to show my guardian angel
in the foreground. Another strange feature, hard to see, but never-the-less
present, are strange flying objects way above the angel's head. (Click
the picture if you want to work this one out!) On the original they
look like orbiting Icelandic rocks. What a mysterious place Iceland
is, to be sure!

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